Conservative ads bash Obama's law

Sunday

Jul 7, 2013 at 12:01 AMJul 7, 2013 at 1:54 PM

WASHINGTON - Although many of its rules will not take effect for months, President Barack Obama's health-care law already is the subject of an aggressive advertising campaign by Republicans to sow doubts about how it will work.

WASHINGTON — Although many of its rules will not take effect for months, President Barack Obama’s health-care law already is the subject of an aggressive advertising campaign by Republicans to sow doubts about how it will work.

In one of the largest campaigns of its kind, Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group financed by billionaires Charles and David Koch, will begin running TV commercials this week asserting that the law will limit Americans’ health-care choices.

The group is spending more than $1 million on the campaign, which initially will include television advertising in Ohio and Virginia and online ads asking people to test their “Obamacare risk factors.”

Republicans have staked much of their near-term political success on the bet that the health-care overhaul will be unpopular with Americans as it is implemented in a process that they have warned will be chaotic and frustrating.In a significant strategic shift, Americans for Prosperity is carefully aiming its new campaign at one bloc of swing voters: young women.

“How do I know my family is going to get the care they need?” asks a young mother of two who stars in a commercial. “Can I really trust the folks in Washington with my family’s health care?"

The ads will be broadcast on cable and network television during programs popular with women such as the Food Network cooking competition Chopped. Obama’s political group, Organizing for Action, started running ads of its own last month that promote the law’s benefits.